PSC Orders Phone Service Cut to Telemarketers

1/20/2007

Associated Press

State utility regulators ordered that phone service be cut to building here, where they believe telemarketers, trying to dodge their orders to stop calling people, are operating.

It's believed to be the first time the Public Service Commission has taken such a step, lawyers said.

It was necessary, because the owners of Southern Siding Co. Inc. repeatedly changed company names whenever the PSC tried to enforce a 2003 order barring calls to people on Louisiana's "Do Not Call" list, Commissioner Jimmy Field said.

Previous attempts to disconnect service to Southern Siding or other names used by the company were unsuccessful, because the phone company could not find customers by those names in the directory.

The secretary of state's office showed 14 businesses in the building where service was disconnected Friday, including a real estate firm and investment agency. All are owned or managed by someone with the same last name as Southern Siding's president, Tanweer A. Bhatti of Baton Rouge.

The companies peddled siding and windows, including to people who had signed up for the "Do Not Call" list to avoid telemarketing calls, PSC records show. It's against the law to call numbers on that list except in limited circumstances.

Michael B. Cupit, a Denham Springs lawyer who returned calls for Bhatti, said he tried to negotiate a settlement with the PSC in January and August 2005.

"They were not interested at all. They wouldn't even sit down at the table to talk about it," Cupit said.

Law provides for a fine of up to $10,000 for telemarketers who don't sign up for the "Do Not Call" program and fines of up to $1,500 for each person that is on the list and called. The fine rises to up to $3,000 for calls to somebody 65 or older.

Southern Siding was accused in 2003 of not registering for the program and making 189 calls to people on the list; about half those were made after PSC staff told the firm it was violating the law.

Bhatti paid a fine, and commissioners at the time noted Bhatti said the company would "fully comply with the law."

PSC investigators documented 42 calls from a company called Naveed Inc., in early 2005, which they discovered was owned by Bhatti and run out of the Southern Siding office, PSC records show. Later, investigators received complaints about calls from a Jamil Inc., at the same address for which Bhatti is a registered agent.